would like Balmforth in also for London and as you say keep Danny at loose forward. Think within this current team Houghton shows his worth though like most players hes criticised
With Lane- superficially he look suspect but I think his stats in most departments must stack up. Most players appear to be judged on tackles which is fair enough but if they can bust a tackle or slice through a gap. There are other aspects that many including me dont see as valuable on the pitch
that said i would put other second rowers ahead of him!

Got a ref called J Vella on Sunday,He reffed the Salford/Cas game last week and was bloody awful…gave out 6 agains like they was going out of fashion so that’s us done for.

Whilst I'm also reasonably optimistic that we will come away with a first win on Sunday, there is a slight amount of unease about this (We wouldn't be true black & whites without some unease about something or other right now!!).

For London, there are going to be probably only a small handful of games through this season where they feel they may have at least some semblance of a chance of grabbing a victory and, unfortunately, this is probably one of those few games, especially with our team being somewhat patched-up at the moment to say the least. A win for them would also end the question of 'are London going to be winless in the whole of 2024' early on.

It sure will help if we can take control of the game early on and settle everyone down a little, but if that doesn't happen and the game turns scrappy, then it might start to become uncomfortable for all. The longer London are in the game, the more positivity they will gain, while we (players and the crowd) are liable to start getting nervy, especially if Sunday follows the same pattern as the first two games with injuries and sending-offs!

I think we'll win, but it says something of the state of things with us right now that I'm still a touch uneasy about this one! We blew the title in 1982 with an out-of-the-blue defeat to Fulham at Craven Cottage with around three games of the season remaining, and every time we play Fulham/Harlequins/London, the memory comes back to me like a bad recurring nightmare, I've never gotten over it to this day!!

Nice post sir.

I’ve mentioned this before, on one of my visits to watch London v Hull at Craven Cottage, probably the same game you’ve mentioned, we arrived early and took a tour round the ground, interestingly the river Thames runs along the side of the stadium, and made a nice backdrop to the venue, on our walk round the ground the once famous “Diddy David Hamilton” DJ and tv personality with an obvious eye for the ladies, walked right up to me with a blonde dolly bird on each arm, lucky little basxxxxd I thought.

Another time I went to see us against London they were playing at Leicester tigers rugby Union ground, as we went in the bar for a drink, it was adorned with leather sofas, and oak panelling, I remember thinking Clarendon never had such opulence, but the beer was crap, so it tempered my jealousy.

On a side note how well as Ashworth started for us.Impressive

You guys have had rotten luck so far there's no doubt.

It's in 3 parts though. There's the nothing you can do bad luck there's the rotten indiscipline bad luck and there's the awful recruitment bad luck.

You'll beat London easily and there's your biggest bit of good luck. You get to play them 3 times.

Ah, David 'Diddy' Hamilton! I believe he's still on the go, apparently he still does the crowd warm-up bit before the Fulham football matches, not sure if he still has the blonde dolly birds accompanying him, He'd probably be arrested on a gross indecency charge these days!!

We can't have played at the Cottage more than once or twice at most? I remember facing them in a JP tie in late '84 (with Peter Sterling in the side) and Fulham/London had already been shunted out to Crystal Palace by then

Didn't London also beat us in 2003, in the first SL game at the KC, in a rain-sodden night, to kill the atmosphere of us moving into our new home? So, you see, I always get the collywobbles about them whenever we face up, it's another of those banana skins we have a tendency to step on!! I'm really hoping for a nice quiet relaxing afternoon this Sunday, God help us!!!

I was distinctly underwhelmed when his signing was announced, but in the three games so far (including the Wigan pre-season) he's shown up well, has put three good shifts in so far. Looks at ease in either the front or second row so that gives us some options there.

We've barely seen any of the other new signings due to a variety of reasons!!! but Ashworth has been one, very isolated, bright spot so far. Hopefully, once we get something like our first-choice pack out there he can maintain his decent start with us. I'm holding onto any little shred of optimism right now, looking for any spring green-shoots wherever they may be!!

Agree re Ashworth as think he’s so far been the best of all the signings. He’s certainly put a shift in everytime and I’ve been impressed with his mobility and defence as well as his go forward.
Have to also say he speaks a lot of sense in his interview in the HDM it’s a great pity that no one at the RFL seems to have anywhere near that level.

I’ll add another one for your collywobbles, they ended our unbeaten run in 2006 at their place.